User blog:Adhamid2/Revision: Reflections on Mckee's Sound Matters: ... and Podcasts.
Of the given internet radio shows, I listened to I Was So High from This American Life and Voices in the Wire from 99% Invisible. Coast to Coast AM was the podcast of my choosing, on recommendation from my eccentric roommate. In listening to segments of these podcasts, I considered what Heidi Mckee argues in her paper, "Sound Matters: Notes toward the analysis and design of sound in multimodal web texts." She paid attention to these four elements of sound in multimodal composition: vocal delivery, music, special effects, and silence. Thinking about these elements separate and together in a few pieces of multimedia, she concludes that we don't yet know about all the ways sound can be designed into writing, but that we must consider it and its elements in the context of the entire composition. I Was So High touched on a well known facet of modern American society, that people of all backgrounds and positions abuse drugs, even the ones you wouldn't expect. I perceived the vocal delivery of Ira to be the strongest quality of the show. He talks so naturally. For him the show is a highly engaged, well formatted, professionally edited conversation. He interviewed his father, a former marketing executive, on his drug abuse, and often Ira evaluates his father's comments after playing a small clip from his face-to-face interview. The transition between the father's comments and Ira's evaluation also was very natural. Since Ira's voice is gentle and unimposing, going back and forth between the actual conversation and Ira's hosting is given a fluid quality. Little music was worked into I Was So High, which too works for the show. Though, when music does come on, it signals to me who the audience is supposed to be. This is an intelligent and structured show that is at least supposed to appeal to educated Americans. Thus the emphasis is on the content, the words coming from Ira and his guests, not on the music, hence the very minimalist instrumentals. These instrumentals consisted of a bass guitar and drums for the intro/outro, and something more experimental with a sitar lead for transitions between adjacent drug stories. Aside from the intro, transitions, and the outro, music does not really weave its way into the conversations. All this serves to set the mood for the curious drug stories of everyday folks in various jobs, from bartenders to executives. Sound effects were also fairly absent from this production. There is not much to be said about it other than its absence characterizes the legitimacy of this show. The same is true of the show's use of silence. Silence shows up with Ira's masterful timing and ability to pause. This is just another feature of his rhythmic speech. Voices in the Wire by 99% Invisible was less of an interview or standard radio show with guests and more of an audio documentary. While Roman uses snippets of interview, much of his time is spent narrating history. His voice is pleasant, but it puts me to sleep as he is almost too soft-spoken. The vocal delivery may have been intentionally reduced as to make room for all the clips that are constantly being played. Music from old ads are played under the responses of interviewees. At one point a man was describing his experience taking a cab while describing a girl he knew, and in the background a clip was playing of the girl talking. Three distinct sources of audio were playing all at once, but thanks to modern mixing and mastering, such a cacophony is actually effective. Sound effects abound in this piece, mainly in transitioning and for bringing to life the descriptions of interviewees. If the interviewee mentions the show Jeopardy with significance, the musical intro to Jeopardy would play simultaneously. Like the first piece, silence does not play a significant role. Coast to Coast AM was perhaps the least formal and structured show of all three. This is expected because it's not a radio show that presents some underlying storyline. The point of this particular program, The UFO Phenomenon, is to explore the new evidence surrounding the status of UFO's. Coast to Coast AM has a very particular audience for those individuals interested in "goofier" topics like conspiracy theories, aliens, unknown history, and in general ideas that question the commonly understood workings of the world. First, the storytelling which is so carefully treated in the first two pieces is a given a backseat here. Part of good radio storytelling, from what I've gathered so far, is the quality of the recording. Put simply, the recording and editing quality is formidably worse. Instead of meeting with his interviewees in person, authors of books on UFO's and the darkness, he talks to them over the phone. Vocally, the dialogue is even more of a casual conversation than in This American Life. While there is some format to the questions, the host and his guest are constantly bouncing ideas and facts of off each other, making little room for much else. Music and silence don't find a place in this piece, but special effects are used without end. They are quirky and usually obscure soundbites. Of course I take the show less seriously than I do for This American Life and 99% Invisible if I hear sounds of jets flying by as you introduce yourself. Reflecting on the sonic content of each piece, it is clear how sounds are used to create the identity of each show. This American Life utilizes minimalist instrumentals, supreme editing, and conversation to tell a story. 99% Invisible invites sophisticated sound effects to breath life into its historical descriptions and explorations. Coast to Coast AM is purely content driven, with little attention given to effective sound design. Category:Blog posts